166 



KNOWLEDGE • 



[Aug. 22, 1884. 



appears in the Journal Officiel, certifies that M. Pastenr has 

 advanced nothing that lias not been found strictly correct. Science, 

 it adds, has solved the problem of rendering the dog proof against 

 the disease, by means of a preventive inoculation of attenuated 

 virus. All the dogs declared by M. Pasteur to be protected by the 

 immunity he had conferred upon them resisted the inoculation 

 with the strongest virus, while the majority of dogs who had not 

 been so protected became rabid when inoculated with the strong 

 virus, and died. The committee propose hereafter to make further 

 experiments as to the duraiioa of immunity after preventive inocu- 

 lation, and also as to whether protection is afforded if the pre- 

 ventive inoculation does not take place until after a bite has been 

 inflicted by a rabid dog. The committee said that they have pre- 

 pared this preliminary report in order that Jl. Pasteur may use it 

 for his communications to the scientific congress at Copenhagen 

 " on results which honour in so high a degree French science, and 

 give it a new title to the gratitude of humanity." The committee 

 consists of MM. Beclard, Paul Bert, Bouley, Tisseraud, ViUemm, 

 and Vulpian. 



A Marsh under the Ocean.— Every south-east and southerly 

 storm throws upon the south side beach of Long Island large 

 masses of peat, lignitic branches, trunks of trees, fossilised leaves, 

 and animal remains. The coast, it is said, after a heavy wind and 

 surf, is strewn with these apparently unaccountable objects from 

 Atlanticville to Water Island. The geologists state that the 

 appearance of debris seems to be the result of the wave action of 

 the surf upon the remains of a vast swamp, at present submerged 

 beneath the Atlantic. After due calculations they have decided 

 that this submarine swamp extends fifty miles longitudinally 

 and half a mile latitudinally. Professor Newberry, of Columbia 

 College, gives the following explanation of the existence of this 

 marsh: — "The coast is settling, and what had been swamped 

 place.s on the land have been submerged by the waves. We find 

 along the coast of New Jersey, Staten Island, and Long Island, 

 evidences of subsidence going on at the present time, and that 

 which was forest land and marsh land is now out at sea. In some 

 places the peat beds which were marshes on the land have been 

 submerged, and we find shell-fish bored into the peat. I have 

 plenty specimens to show that the level of the land has changed, 

 and we have also fresh evidence of that circumstance in the fact 

 that stumps of trees of a large size are found along the coast at 

 some distance iu the water, where they are only, perhaps, visible at 

 low tide. They must have grown on comparatively dry ground."— 

 JEngineenng. 



Small-pox, Chicken-pox, Cow-pox, and Vaccination.— By far 

 the most important medical work for the past quarter is the report 

 on the above-named subjects, by Joseph Jones, M.D., President of 

 the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana. The report consists 

 of -ilO closely-printed pages, and, like everything that comes from 

 the pen of this most original, industrious, and truly gifted author, 

 is a model from which every one who reads it may take something 

 for copy and instruction. Reading the essay carefully through, 1 

 am brought to the conclusion that no approach to it as a history of 

 vaccination can be ffund elsewhere, and that we, in England, 

 have nowhere collected in any volume anything like the amount 

 of information that has been here produced by our learned 

 American confnre. Every point connected with small-pox, vaccina- 

 tion, and spurious vaccination has been sought out, condensed, 

 analysed; while drawings, very natural in character, are freely 

 interspersed to illustrate, from point to point, the author's histories, 

 views, or conclusions. Amongst the general conclusions which the 

 author draws at the close of his treatise the following are some of 

 the most important :— (n) Vaccination, when carefully performed 

 on Jenner's method, is as complete a protection from small-pox 

 now as it was in the early part of the century ; (b) Without vacci- 

 nation, the application of steam and navigation and land travel 

 would have, during the past fifty years, scattered small-pox in 

 every part of the habitable globe ; (c) Vaccination has not impaired 

 the strength and vigour of the human race, but has added vastly to 

 the sum of human life, happiness, and health ; (d) Inoculation for 

 small pox, which preceded vaccination, induced a comparatively mild 

 and protective disease, but multiplied the fociof contagion, kept small- 

 pox perpetually alive, and increased its fatal ravages among mankind. 

 On one subject only could it be wished that this excellent authority 

 had bestowed more labour— namely, whether the diffusion of small- 

 pox in last century by the process of inoculation did not form the 

 background on which vaccination stands so prominently as a bless- 

 ing, not altogether unalloyed, to our race. In other words, if there 

 had been no universal distribution of small-pox by inoculation, 

 would the disease under an improved hygiene have died out alto- 

 gether without vaccination ? There is, perhaps, no one living who 

 could answer this one all-important question more completely than 

 our anther. Will he undertake the task ?—The Asclepiad. 



" Let Ejiowledge grow from more to more." — Alfbed Tenntsom, 



Only a small proportion of Letters received can possibly be in- 

 serted. Correspondents must not le offended, there/ore, shcvld their 

 letters not appear. 



All Editorial communications should be addressed to the EDITOR OJ 

 Knowledge; all Business commuyncations to the Publishers, at the 

 Office, 74, Oreat Queen-street, W.C. If this is not attended to 



DELAYS ARISE FOR WHICH THE EDITOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE. 



All Remittances, Cheques, and Post Office Orders should be made 

 payable to Mes.sr8. Wyhan & Sons. 



The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of correspondents. 



No COMMUNICATIONS ARE ANSWERED BT POST, ETES THOUGH STAMPED 

 AND DIRECTED ENVELOPE BE ENCLOSED. 



THE SENSE OF TASTE. 



[1364] — In the interesting article on "The Sense of Taste," 

 Knowledge, 8th inst., its author makes no reference to instinctive 

 desires or longings, and how these may influence taste. An acid 

 drink or unripe orange may be enjoyed at one time, but much 

 disliked at another ; or, again, pickles, uncooked lettuce, raw 

 onions, &c., are sometimes eagerly accepted and enjoyed, while at 

 other times they are rejected as most uninviting. These instinctive 

 cravings are most interesting to watch, as in my experience they 

 often indicate certain wants of the body. Several times I have 

 seen a very young infant object to suck its mother, apparently because 

 the milk was poor and unsatisfying; while it readily took the 

 nursing-bottle, which, moreover, did not always agree with it. 



If Mr. Grant Allen could give us an article embracing and ex- 

 plaining these and sach like points, it would be most interesting 

 and instructive. Wm. Main. 



PEESPECTIVE. 



[1365] — I must still maintain that K. Jones is wrong "in his 

 criticism " on perspective. 



If, instead of one cube, he had a row of them extending right and 

 left of his point of sight, it would be curious to know whereabouts 

 he would begin his two slopes ; for, according to him, only the 

 middle cube is parallel to the spectator. 



Now, instead of cubes, let him stand in the middle of his shelf 

 and draw that. The longer the shelf the better, if he only 

 remembers another rule in perspective, viz., not to attempt to 

 " take in " more than you can see without turning the head (or 

 about one-third of your hemisphere). 



Lest his preconceived notion should interfere with his drawing 

 the line correctly, let him test its position by holding np a ruler, so 

 as to tally with the edge of the shelf. 



Or, instead of "an imaginary plate of glass," let him spread a 

 thin layer of gum on one of his window-panes, and, standing 

 directly in front of it, let him (when the gum has dried) trace on it 

 with pen and ink (shutting one eye), both to right and left, say, 

 the area-rail of the opposite houses, if in a street. He will, doubt- 

 less, thus become a convert to the received system, as he cannot 

 deny that the result is " as it appears to his eye." 



Rosalie Vansittabt. 



[1386] — The horizon line of the sea, as viewed from an elevated 

 point, is evidently a hyperbola. At St. Helena, at the back of the 

 Artillery Barracks (which are on the top of a cliff 600 ft. high), is 

 a long wall with a level top. Standing on the hillside behind it, 

 at such a height that the wall-top and horizon about coincide, the 

 latter may be seen to rise in a distinct arch above the former, the 

 ends of the arch cutting the wall at a very acute angle. 



Aug. 4, lb84. JIusAHR. 



WEARING THE DEAD. 



["1357] — In your article on " Embalmers," mention is made of u 

 Guinea tribe who " reduce their relatives to a liquid state and drink 

 them down." It may interest your readers to hear of a tribe who 

 uenr the remains of their dead. 



\\Tien in the Yosemite A'alley, N. California, in October, 1870, 1 

 met a small band of that very low type of the human race, the 

 Digger Indians. They had come down into the valley from Mono 



